'Subconscious awakening' inspiration and shoot Evaluation

Freud regarded the mind to be like an iceberg, where the greatest part is hidden beneath the water or unconscious.

Inspiration on the use of materials towards some of my shoots has evolved from this shoot featured in Noi.se magazine. I absolutely love this whole shoot and came across it while looking on behance. The images have influenced one of the shoots for the last section of my book 'Subconscious awakening', with the material placed over the body and head with some shoots of it pulled tighter on the skin and some flowing more freely around the face and body. The use of colour stained onto the fabric adds a more mysterious element making you question why it is there.

I plan to use the material as the main illusion within my shoot getting the model to create different movements and poses underneath it with most of the images being close up shots. I practised elements of this shoot with similar fabric in a test shoot at the beginning testing out distortion and effects. The images will have similar attributes to these previously tested images as I intent to trial a slow shutter speed hoping it will pick up a good effect with the fabric and the model moving. The styling of this shoot is going to be very white I want everything to almost seem ghostly and plan to create this with different elements such as clothing, the backdrop and the use of light fabric and lighting.

Photo: Greg Adamski

Stylist&head pieces: Zuza Sowińska-Bania 

Makeup: Marianna Yurkiewicz/D'vision 

Model: Ola Podgórska/Moye Models

 https://www.behance.net/gallery/5695433/Flutter

previously tested image from practise shoot with fabric.

Below are two screen shoots of two of my favourite final images from the shoot. I am really happy with the outcome of these images, the effect of the material really captured what I wanted and really applies a dream like effect making you question wether she could be asleep or awake opening up the subconscious mind. I was really pleased with the styling aspect of the images, I layered jewellery which picked up with the movement of the model and the slow shutter speed and kept the clothing white. I applied a darker red lip and blue pigment to the eyes as I wanted her face to be in focus in the final imagery and I hoped this would pick up on camera under the fabric making it quite glamorous looking but eerie at the same time. Overall i feel the effect of the material and the slow shutter speed worked well and that the images will not need any post production which I am really happy about.

As well as creating this first image I went on to creating a second look as I wanted to use this model for two looks and had re arranged this shoot enough times that I wanted to get both shoots done in one. The second shoot I done incorporated the skull mask which I wanted to shoot against a dark background. We could not find a black background anywhere to put into are studio which ended with us shooting against a black backboard which did not look great in the background. Midway through the shoot the model decided to tell me that she then had to go this was really annoying as I had nowhere near finished the shoot but I could not make her stay. This shoot did not turn out at all how I wanted it to so I am defiantly going to have to re shoot this as I wanted a really good image with this mask and I not happy with the outcome of this one.